Inserting and protecting device for shoe laces



Feb. 9, 1932. o. KIRCHER I 1,844,223

INSERTING AND PROTECTING DEVICE FOR SHOE LACES Filed Jan. 2, 1931 Patented Feb. 9, 1932 UNITED STATES OTTO KIRCHEB, 0F STRASBOURG, FRANCE INSERTING- AND PROTECTING DEVICE FOR SHOE LACES Application filed January 2, 1931, Serial No. 506,023, and in =Ztrance August 26, 1930.

The troubles which shoe laces and their knots give when freely hanging out of the shoes are well known. Apart from the fact that they are liable of getting loosened, they often cause the wearer to fall on the ground when he is treading on them by inadvertency; moreover, if the lace is not very tightly fastened the shoes are wavering on the feet of the wearer. I

In ageneral way to do away with those dra vbacks he will insert with his fingers the lace ends together with their knots inside his shoes; a rather difiicult task if the lace has been tied up very fast. It also happens that the lace ends are shifted on to a wrong place, whereby the wearer feels a very unpleasant pressure upon his foot.

My inserting and protecting device removes all these inconveniences for it allows the wearer to easily put the lace ends inside his shoe and have them protected when thus positioned. The device is a two-prong fork the inner edges of which are made irregular by corrugation or in any other suitable manner.

The fork is provided with a rocking member acted upon by a. spring, which rocking member locks the fork against the shoe and conceals that portion of the lace which comes out of the upper eyelets.

The accompanying drawings show an e1nbodiment of the inserting device.

Figs. 1 and 2 are respectively front and side views of the same, in an opened position.

Figs. 3 and 4 show its use as applied to a shoe, respectively in the first and the last stage of the operation.

In these views, a and b are the fork prongs by which the lace ends are caught up for the1r insertion into the shoe; 9 is the rocking leg and 7 the hin 'e for attachment of the latter with the fork. These parts are preferably made of a suitable metal. The rocking leg is secured in its open and closed positions by means of a lamellar spring h which abuts against the leg. And, to preventthe device from sliding 05 after having been positioned,

the inner face of the rocking leg is fluted or otherwise wrinkled.

For use, the wearer has but to catch up the V As a result they are no longer visible as p soon as the fork has reached the end of its stroke. At the most, there can be left only a quite small bit of them which, on the other hand, is concealed behind the rocking leg.

The whole operation can take place within a very short time and in a very easy way.

For removing the device the rocking leg is lifted and the fork pulled out whereby the lace ends again appear.

The construction hereinbefore set forth is obviously capable of a certain range of change and modification without materiallydeparting from the spirit of the invention; especially 1 can make use of a wire shaped out in a suitable manner for making the fork.

I claim:

An inserting and protecting device for shoe laces comprising a two-prong fork for catching up the lace loop and ends between the prongs, corrugations on the inner border of said prongs, av rocking leg pivoted on the upper end of the fork and a spring plate on the fork abutting against the rocking leg.

OTTO KIRCHER. 

